Machine for doubling, winding, and measuring cloth



June 11, 1929.

c. e. RICHARDSON MACHINE FOR DOUBLING, WINDING, AND MEASURING CLOTH Filed Dec. 19, 1 927 4 Sheets-Sheet June 11, 192 9. c. G. RICHARDSON MACHINE FOR DOUBLING, WINDING, AND MEASURING CLOTH 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec. 19, 1927 June 11, 1929, c RlcHARDsON 1,717,120

MACHINE FOR DOUBLING, WINDING, AND MEASURING 01.0w 1

Filed Dec. 19, 1927 4 Sheets-Sheet C. G. RICHARDSON- June 11, 1929.

MACHINE FOR DOUBLING, WINDING, AND MEASURING CLOTH 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Dec. 19, 1927 Patented June 11, 1929.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES G. RICHARDSON, OF SPRINGFIELD, VERMONT, ASSIGNOR TO PARKS & WOOLSON MACHINE COMPANY, OF SPRINGFIELD, VERMONT, A CORPORATION OF VERMONT.

MACHINE FOR DOUBLING, WINDING, AND MEASURING CLOTH.

Application filed December 13, 1927.

This invention relates to machine for winding, measuring and doubling cloth and is intended to provide a machine capable of easy and quick threading by the operator from his position in front of the machine and which shall be capable also of securing a perfectly wound package of either single or doubled cloth with even edges at the ends, while running the machine at higher speeds than heretofore has been the practice. The machine is also perfectly adapted to be operated for cloth inspection purposes without loss of its other amenities.

Doubling and measuring machines as hereintofore constructed and arranged have been needlessly wasteful of time in the op eration of threading a piece of cloth into the machine besides involving considerable stooping and requiring the operator to go around to the rear of the machine when threading in each piece of cloth. Moreover, in the prior art machines the shifting of "the cloth in advance of its reaching the plicator and winder elements, not only is the operator required to watch both the unwinding package and the plicator at the same time, but there is much greater liklihood of error in shifting too much or too little, thus requiring great skill to keep the middle line of the cloth registering with the apex of the plicator. Such uneven shifting of the cloth results in package being wound having uneven edges at each end.

The present invention overcomes these and other ditficulties by providing a new arrangement of the cloth delivery means, the plicator and the winder, or package forming element, in such relationship that these difficulties are eliminated, as will be hereinafter explained and a machine capable of very rapid action insuring perfect center line folding or doubling with the edges at each end of the package produced perfectly even with one another, and which can be very rap-idly and easily threaded with successive pieces of cloth. The cloth may also be measured and repackaged without doubling when desired.

In the accompanying drawings I have illustrated a preferred form of construction and arrangement embodying the principles of this invention in which Figure 1 is a front elevation of a completely assembled Serial No. 240,948.

machine with a piece of cloth threaded therein.

Figure 2 is a right hand elevation of the same machine.

Figure 3 is a left hand elevation of the same machine.

Figure 4 is a front detail view showing a front elevation of the plicator and gripping or sword arm.

Figure 5 is a plan view showing the three angularly disposed arms of the plicator.

Figure 6 is a perspective view showing the plicator bars and sword arm in their relation to a piece of cloth being doubled in order to illustrate the folding action of the plicator.

In the practice of this invention accordingto the form illustrated in the drawings, I provide a suitable frame Work, or base, comprising the side uprights or standards 1 suitably spaced apart and secured together by proper tie-rods and which form a support for a horizontal oblong frame 2 mounted upon said standards and provided at its opposite end portions at front and rear with short track members 3 to support a transversely movable carriage, that is a carriage that is movable transversely t0 the travel of the cloth.

The stationary frame of the carriage is provided with supporting bearing brackets, or arms, 1 for supporting a beam of cloth to be unwound and suitable guide rods or rollers extending from end to end of the stationary frame, as shown at 2, are used as guiding and tensioning means for the cloth.

Before passing to the plicator for the guiding and tensioning means, the cloth is shown passing around a measuring drum 30 with the back face of the cloth in contact with the frictional or roughened surface of the drum.

The plicator is of the parallel plane type, that is the cloth approaching the plicator in open or full width position returns from the plicator in a doubled condition in a plane that is parallel with the single or open breadth of cloth approaching the plicator.

This plicator comprises three angularly disposed bars or members, the topmost of which, numbered 7, is horizontal, meeting at its inner end an obliquely inclined bar 8 lying in the same plane and inclined at an angle of degrees to the horizontal plane, while the third bar lies at an angle of 45 degrees from the opposite side of the machine and joins the other two bars at their meeting angle or apex, but sufficiently spaced in a parallel plane to allow the two meeting portions of the cloth to pass between the plane of bar 7 and the plane of bar 9, as will be readily understood from an inspection of Figures 5 and 6.

As shown by the arrows indicating direction,"'the cloth travels upward in open or full width condition from the measuring roll behind the plicator, with its medial line in registry with the apex of the plicator, onehalf 'of' the cloth therefore passes over and down the front side of the horizontal member 7 of the plicator, while the other half of the cloth takes a quarter turn from behind, around the plicator member 8, whence it travels horizontally around the other diagonal plicator member 9 rearwardly and downwardly so that thefinished faces of the two portions of the cloth are folded together with their edges in registry with each other.

The plicator element is inclined forwardly for reasons presently to be explained. In front of the plicator is mounted a pair of revoluble clamping or gripping jaws 10" which grip the core board, on which the doubled cloth is to be wound, said jaws being carried by their respective shafts 10, which have splined engagement with their driving elements and along whose axis the shafts are ad ustable to accommodate the spacing of the jaws to the width of the package to be formed according tothe width of the cloth being acted upon. To support the inner ends "of the longitudinally adjustable shafts 10 of the winder element I provide adjustable bearing members 19 which are provided with supporting bearings at their upper end and which are carried by sleeves 19 mounted to slide on spaced apart bars, or track rods 19 'It' will be understood that the winding element thus described forms the energizing member for drawing the cloth through the machine. It may be driven by any .convenient mechanism, but I have here shown an electric motor 12 having speed reducing gearing connections 13 and 14 by which a counter shaft 17 is driven from which rotative movement is imparted to the aligned winder shafts 10 by means of sprocket chains 10 connecting sprocket wheels on the respective shafts, the sprocket chains acting to secure uniform rotation of the two aligned jawshaft or winder shaft elements.

lVhile the measuring drum 30 and the cloth guiding and tensioning means are mounted in the stationary frame, it will be seen that the plicator element, as well as the winder element,are mounted in a movable carriage or frame 6 of general oblong shape supported by the four grooved wheels 4 resting upon the track members 3, shaft 5 passing through the track wheels 4 at one side of the machine carrying a pinion intermeshing with a rack bar 51 secured to the stationary frame 2 of the machine. On each end of the shaft 5, which may be termed the carriage actuating shaft, there is placed a hand wheel 5 by which the operator can shift the plicator and winder unit, or carria ge, transversely in either direction. Stops 3 at each end of the track serve to prevent advancing portion of the cloth, the operator has an absolutely certain and positive guide for maintaining the folding lineexactly at the middle line of the cloth. Furthermore, since the winding element and the plicator are positioned in fixed relation to each other, it necessarily follows that so long as the two doubled edges and the upwardly moving sin gle edge at the right hand side of the cloth are in registry, the doubled portion of the cloth must necessarily wind evenly on the winding reel so that perfectly even edges are formed at each end of the wound package, a thing that was very diflicult of attainment where the plicator was fixed and the cloth before approaching the plicator Was shifted transversely in the attempt to secure proper alignment or registry between the middle line of the cloth and the apex of the plicator element.

The plicator is preferably set at an angle of about degrees to the horizontal, being inclined forwardly toward the operator. The arrangement is such that the operator can easily reach every portion of the machine from his operating position in front when threading the cloth through the machine. He needs merely to pick up the loose end of the cloth, whether it be in a roll on a beam, or whether it be folded in pleats in a tray resting on the floor at the bottom of the machine, can then readily pass the forward or free end of the'cloth around the guiding and tensioning members 2 which may be smooth bars or rollers, around the measuring drum 30, up over the back of the plicator frame, whence it is drawn around the plicator members or bars in the manner illustrated and then carried to the winding reel. Preferably the cloth passing from the plicator to the winding reel, passes under a ten-. sioning roller 25 mounted in a swinging fame 24 which serves as an equalizer to compensate for the eccentricity of the revolving cloth package. Every portion of the cloth is within easy reach of the operator at the front of the machine and, as the loose end of the cloth can be very quickly and conveniently drawn through the different cloth engaging and guiding elements with the winding reel in front of the upwardly inclined plicator, a great saving in time in threading the machine is etfccted.

While the measuring apparatus per se forms no part of the invention herein claimed, it may be OXplttlllCtl that the measuring drum shaft 31 is provided at one end with a small pulley 32 connected by a belt with an expansihle pulley 83 of well-known type which by intermeshing pinions actuates a. counter 31 which registers the yardage according to the number of revolutions of the cloth drum. v

The machine may also be used for perching or inspecting the cloth and the forward inclination of the plicator is of great advantage for this purpose, besides making the top of the plicator easily accessible to the operator for doubling purposes. When perching or inspecting the operator takes his position behind the machine where he can easily watch the registry of the doubled edges with the edge adjacent upwardly advancing open breadth of the cloth, while the angle of inclination affords a perfect light for inspecting the cloth in its progress toward the top of the plicator. The hand wheel at the rear of the machine enables him to perfectly control the position of the plicator and winder to maintain the desired registry between the edges of different portions of the cloth as above described. The ma chine. therefore, while in very compact form makes the most complete provision for simultaneously measuring, rewini'ling, inspecting and doubling the cloth. The sword arm 7 projecting between the planes of the plicator members and 9 to the middle fold of the cloth in the usual and well-known mannor serves to maintain a correct creasing of the cloth along its medial line.

It will be understood that as the cloth advances toward the plicator from the tensioning and guiding it tends to swerve from side to side, particularly when the cloth being rapidly run through the machine. in the prior art machines, the Open ator was constantly attempting to counteract this lateral movement of the cloth by shifting the cloth guiding means and in doing this it was necessary for him to watch the cloth guiding means and also the face to face edges of the doubled portion of the cloth where they converge or meet in the plicator, which points being located at different positions made careful and instantaneous observation very difficult, so that much skill and intelligence was necessary to effect the accurate doubling of the cloth on medial line and the winding of an even package. Indeed it was almost impossible to wind a package under those conditions, at any reasonable speed, whose ends should have its edges properly aligned or even with one another.

lVith the present arrangement, it is only required that the operator shall watch one edge of the upwardly advancing stretch of cloth, which is directly in front of his line of vision, so that he can readily maintain the two registering edges of the doubled cloth coming from the plicator in line with the creasing edge of the upwardly advancing stretch of cloth with the result that the cloth coming from the plicator is easily kept in line, or in registry, it-li the cloth leaving the plicator with its two edges in registry. In other words, there is ample time to shift the plicator and the cloth package so that the plicator is always handling the cloth in perfect alignment with the medial line of the cloth where the fold ought to be made and, as the winder element follows the plicator in these shifting movements, the successive windings of the edges of the cloth will lie perfectly even with one another. This permits the machine to be run at greatly increase: speeds, thus largely increasing the capacity of the machine for Work and economizing in the cost of measuring, Winding and doubling and inspecting. The time consumed in. thus dealing with each piece of cloth is further shortened by reason of the fact that the arrangement of the different elements of the mi chine is such that the operator, after merely stooping to seize the freeend of the cloth to be treated, can very conveniently and quickly thread this end through the machine, thus avoiding loss of time in this part of the operation.

hat I claim is:

1. In a cloth doubling machine the combination of means for guiding cloth being delivered, a parallel plane plicator mounted above said means, a winding element for receiving and winding the doubled cloth beyond the plicator, said plicator and said winding reel being freely slidable in unison by the operator transversely of the travel of the cloth while the machine is in operation, to enable the operator to maintain the alignment of the two folded edges of the cloth and of the corresponding end of the package being wound into registry with the edge of the cloth approachingthe plicator.

2. In av doubling machine the combination with cloth guiding means secured in a stationary frame of a cloth doubling plicator and a revoluble winder mounted in a movable carriage to be shiftable in unison with -each other in the direction of the rotative axis of the winder, whereby the winder and the plicator may be simultaneously shifted to follow the lateral swerving movements of the undoubled stretch of cloth approaching the plicator.

In a cloth doubling machine the combination of transversely arranged means for engaging and guiding the cloth to be doubled, a forwardly inclined transversely movable parallel plane plicator mounted above thelevel of said guiding means, a revoluble winding reel mounted forwardly of the lower portion of the plicator and being axially adjustable to position it in correct relation to the apex of the plicator and being also movable in unison with the shift ing movement of the plicator when the machine is in operation.

t. In a cloth doubling machine the combination with a stationary frame and cloth guiding means mounted therein, a transversely movable carriage supported upon said frame, a. plicator comprising angularly disposed turning members arranged in parallel planes mounted on said carriage, and an axially adjustable winding reel also amountedon said carriage in front of the lower portion of the plicator and a tension equalizer arranged to engage the doubled cloth it approaches the winder.

5. In a cloth doubling machine the combination with a supporting frame having transverse cloth guiding means, a super-imposed carriage shiftable in either direction transversely of the travel of the cloth, a revoluble winder arranged on the forward part of the carriage, and a parallel plane plicator secured to the rear portion of said aforesaid back stretch of the cloth.

6. In a machine of the class described the combination with a supporting frame of I cloth engaging and guiding devices, including a rotative cloth measuring drum mourned therein, a movable carriage, a revoluble winding reel mounted in said carriage to permit its axial movement in relation to said cloth guiding devices and an equalizing roll alsomounted on said carriage to be shifted in unison with the winding reel when the machine is in operation.

7.. The combination with a supporting frame of parallel cloth guiding devices in cluding a revoluble cloth measuring drum mounted in said frame, a transversely movable carriage supported above said frame, a revoluble winding reel. mounted in said carriage and an upwardly projecting parallel plane plicator secured to said carriage and an equalizer roll arranged to receive the cloth directly from either the plicator or from the cloth measuring drum for effecting proper delivery of the cloth to the winder, either in single or doubled stretch.

In witness whereof, I have subscribed the above specification.

CHAR-LES G. RICHARDSON. 

